John 12:36 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
John 12:36
While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.
to talk · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
Jesus
Ἰησοῦς,Iēsous
G2424
Jesus (i.e. Jehoshua) · noun — nominative singular masculine, a proper name
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
departed
ἀπελθὼνapelthōn
G565
to go off (i.e. depart) · verb — second aorist active participle, nominative singular masculine
himself
ἐκρύβηekrubē
G2928
to conceal (properly · verb — second aorist passive indicative, 3rd person singular
from
ἀπ᾽ap᾽
G575
"off · preposition
them
αὐτῶν.¶autōn
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive plural masculine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ephesians 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
John 8:59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed b…
1 Thessalonians 5:5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
Luke 16:8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the…
John 1:7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
Acts 13:47-48 For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends…
Matthew 21:17 And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on John 12:27-36
Honour is here done to Christ by his Father in a voice from heaven, occasioned by the following part of his discourse, and which gave occasion to a further conference with the people. In these verses we have,
I. Christ's address to his Father, upon occasion of the trouble which seized his spirit at this time: Now is my soul troubled, Joh 12:27. A strange word to come from Christ's mouth, and at this time surprising, for it comes in the midst of divers pleasing prospects, in which, one would think, he should have said, Now is my soul pleased. Note, Trouble of soul sometimes follows after great enlargements of spirit. In this world of mixture and change we must expect damps upon our joy, and t…
These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them--He who spake as never man spake, and immediately after words fraught with unspeakable dignity and love, had to "hide Himself" from His auditors! What then must they have been? He retired, probably to Bethany. (The parallels are: Mat 21:17; Luk 21:37).
Adam Clarke on John 12:36
Children of light - Let the light, the truth of Christ, so dwell in and work by you that ye may be all light in the Lord: that as truly as a child is the produce of his own parent, and partakes of his nature, so ye may be children of the light, having nothing in you but truth and righteousness.
Did hide himself from them - Either by rendering himself invisible, or by suddenly mingling with the crowd, so that they could not perceive him. See Joh 8:59. Probably it means no more than that he withdrew from them, and went to Bethany, as was his custom a little before his crucifixion; and concealed himself there during the night, and taught publicly every day in the temple. It was in the night sea…
While ye have light, believe in the light,.... Receive the Messiah, and credit the Gospel revelation; this is an explanation of the exhortation in the preceding verse:
that ye may be the children of the light; that is, that they might appear to be such who are enlightened persons; and such are truly so, who are made light in the Lord, or who are enlightened by the Spirit of God to see their own sinfulness, impotency, and unrighteousness, and their need of Christ, and his righteousness and strength, and of salvation by him; and who are made meet, by the grace of God, to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; and which is made manifest by believing in Christ, and walking on i…
The Church Fathers
Jesus withdraws with a set purpose, his passion being close at hand, showing that it was not his will to be put to death by the Jews. Nevertheless, he willingly yielded himself up to suffer, giving himself as a ransom for our life and accepting death, which is cause for sadness. But he ends up changing sorrow into gladness.
(Tr. lii) i. e. While ye have any truth, believe in the truth, that ye may be born again of the truth: That ye may be the children of the light. (Tr. lii) Not from those which began to believe in and love Him, but from those who saw and envied Him. When He hid Himself, He consulted our weakness, He did not derogate from His own power.
These things spake Jesus, and He departed and hid Himself from them. After teaching them in few words what was profitable, once again by God-befitting power He betakes Himself from their midst, concealing Himself; and not permitting them to be roused to anger, but giving them opportunity to change their mind, with intent that they might do what was better. And He withdraws with a set purpose, His Passion being nigh; showing that it was not His will to be put to death by the Jews, notwithstanding that He willingly yielded Himself up to suffer, giving Himself a Ransom for our life; and accepted death, which men naturally liken unto sorrow, and changed the sorrow into gladness.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Faith · Through it is: Spiritual light — Through it is: Spiritual light
Light · FIGURATIVE AND SYMBOLI — FIGURATIVE AND SYMBOLI
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John 12:34-36
34. The multitude answered, We have heard from the law, that Christ remaineth for ever; and how sayest thou, that the Son of man must be lifted up.? Who is that Son of man? 35. Jesus therefore said to them, Yet a little while you have the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; for he who walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. 36. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. These things spoke Jesus, and went away, and hid himself from them.
34. We have heard from the law. Their intention undoubtedly was, to carp malignantly at the words of Christ; and therefore their malice blinds them, s…
Jesus was the light (1:4, 7-9; 3:19-21; 8:12), and he urged the crowd to quickly make the choice to believe in him before it was too late. • They had the choice of becoming children of the light by rebirth through the power of God (1:12-13). • Jesus . . . was hidden from them: Jesus withdrew first from Judea (11:54) and then from this audience (12:36), and soon he would withdraw from the world (17:11).
